This invention represents significant improvements to the wind turbine generally shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,449,889 granted May 22, 1984 to Ralph A. Belden.
The wind turbine described in the Belden patent represents a very significant step forward in the art of wind turbines to harness energy from wind having a wide range of velocities particularly at rather low velocities. It additionally has the ability to automatically adjust the effective rotor area to rapid changes in wind velocity and to automatically adjust the direction of rotor to changes in wind direction.
This invention provides improvements to make the wind turbine more responsive to rapid changes in wind velocity to obtain improved power efficiencies at lower wind velocities and to provide a more constant power output over a wider range of wind velocities. Additionally the present invention provides additional provisions for preventing the wind turbine from "overspeeding" even in high hurricane wind conditions. Further, the present invention is more responsive to rapid changes in wind direction to provide a more constant or even power output.
These and other advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment.